Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Right in the center of downtown, across from the SFMOMA and the Jewish Contemporary Museum, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts holds a unique place in the San Francisco arts community.

It's dedicated to contemporary visual art, performance, and video art, with boundary-pushing exhibitions that highlight domestic and international artists. The exhibitions here tend to push buttons—like Occupy Bay Area, about the history of protest in the Bay Area. Its triennial exhibition, Bay Area Now, focuses on emerging talent in the Bay Area.